PeterMcKinney Blog: So close... so far?

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05/16/2006

So close... so far?

So so far we seem so close to actually getting an Assembly up and running in Northern Ireland. It's been 8 years from the Agreement and about 3.5 from the last assembly went bust (go to jail, do not pass go, do not collect £200 - but all MLAs definitely collect your huge salary). So have we landed on Free Parking this time? Or is it back to the clanger...

Monopoly may not be too bad a metaphor. The going round in circles seems a lot like experience here. But I think things have not really (or only) been going round in circles. There has been a change. The moving to the extremes in politics has I think created the centrifugal force we need here to get some stuff shifting and sifting and getting a real process out of circular movement. I think things have been centrifuged to the surface... weapons, spying, intentions... As I watched the first assembly meet it felt like a lot less was hidden than the last time, like people's cards were on the table this time for real. The debate over the UUP and PUP alliance is I think a signal of things being in the open this time round. This can only be a good thing. And does anyone else see the irony of Sinn Fein boycotting debates with Paisley?

So, where to from here. I am not too sure, but I know there is an opportunity to leave the past behind and move forward to what and who we are meant to be. I still look though for the centruge effect as in the next while, wether from now to June, or owards to the autumn, there is a sifting takes place and shift ensues. May what needs to be cut off be cut off decisively and what needs reconciled be reconciled...

So with that call to the heart, I'll sign off... Later.

09:55 PM | Permalink

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